Wave
by Allekha
Summary: (Orenchi no Furo Jijou) A chance fall leads to Tatsumi meeting - well, there's no mermaid in this river, right?


A/N: Written for Sumi for Parallels 2015. My brain smashed together one of their prompts and the series opening and came up with this.

* * *

At lunch at school today, his friends hadn't been able to shut up about the mermaid rumor.

"I swear it, I was passing over the Omono River yesterday evening – the sun was just starting to set – and I happened to look down, and I saw this _huge_ tail fin disappearing into the water!" one of them was saying. The rest were split on choosing to believe him and bombarding him with questions in order to get him to admit he'd made the whole thing up.

Tatsumi privately rolled his eyes and stayed out of it. The local news kept showing blurry photos and airing eyewitness testimonies of the supposed mermaid at least once a week, and they had been at it for nearly two months now. Of course mermaids didn't exist. And even if they did, there was no way on would choose to live in the Omono River – he passed by it on his way to and from his part-time job, he would know. Environmental clubs made it a target of their clean-up efforts, but the water was still clogged with weeds by the end of summer, and trash collected at the edges.

If Tatsumi were a mermaid, he would live in the ocean. Lots of space out there.

Later that afternoon, though, he couldn't help but think of the rumors again as he passed over the bridge that would lead him home from work. It was still light out on his walk home; while the air was growing chilly early, it would be a few weeks yet before he was forced to return in the dark, and the orange sunlight glinting off the water was pretty if he ignored the places where plastic containers congregated. He paused to take a look, if only to admire the view a little.

As he expected, there was nothing there but the river. Maybe some fish, under the surface – he wasn't sure if they could live there with all the pollution. A duck was bobbing happily along.

Then, from the corner of his eye: movement. A little startled, he jerked his head over, but whatever it was had moved toward the shadows under the bridge. Tatsumi grasped the rusty chain fence and leaned over for a better look. Was that a person? Crazy, to be swimming in that river – in this weather, too! He leaned just a little further, intending to shout and make sure that the person didn't need help.

 _Crack_. The fence suddenly slackened under his fingers as the old, rust-worn link that connected the fence and its post snapped. Tatsumi didn't have time to try and regain his balance – instead, he tumbled right into the water.

It was _cold_. It hurt when his back hit it, as if he had hit solid ground. Out of shock, he gasped, trying to pull more air in – but water was already rushing in. He choked as water entered his throat, not air. Air! He floundered his arms, but they didn't move right. Didn't move him _up_.

Up, where was up, wasn't it that glittering thing over there? He tried to swim but couldn't even seem to turn himself properly, why wasn't he breathing? Right, water, water. The light was drifting away – no, _he_ was falling away from it.

A shadow moved in front of the light. It paused for a moment, then started to swim toward him. He hoped it would help him, because he couldn't seem to move no matter how hard he willed his limbs to do so, despite the panic working in his brain.

The figure came straight to him, grasping his wrists – he could barely feel it, his hands were going numb – before a blurry face came up to his own. _Help_ , he tried to mouth, ridiculous, he was clearly drowning.

The stranger kissed him. Startled, Tatsumi raised his arms up, tried to push away. What, what was he doing? Before he could even complete the thought, he gagged as a tongue pried itself into his mouth, and then:

Air. Warm air rushed into his lungs. He slackened in relief, feeling light-headed. Oh, so that was what it was about.

He had enough presence of mind to grab onto the stranger as the other man propelled them up, up to the surface, where the air was cold but fresh and oxygen-rich and _present_. Tatsumi coughed as it caught on the water in his throat, and clung to the stranger as he put his head down and tried to clear the water out and let the air in.

He hadn't finished before the stranger said, "Come on, let's get you to shore." Tatsumi didn't even have the breath to protest as the man pulled him along the river, but he must have been a strong swimmer: Tatsumi could barely kick his legs to help, and still his head remained above the water as he heaved for air.

When the other man heaved him up onto the bank, he rolled on his stomach and coughed as hard as his body would let him. Actually, it was rather hard to stop now that he had gotten started, his lungs seemingly determined to clear out every bit of water remaining in them. Finally, after many long minutes, he was starting to get enough oxygen and slumped to the dirt.

He was content to lay there, exhausted, his eyes shut as he focused on simply breathing. In, out, in, out.

"Are you alright?" someone asked, and Tatsumi pried his eyes open to see his rescuer laying next to him, looking concerned.

"Yes," he whispered, then cleared his throat. "Thanks, I thought I was about to drown."

"I'm glad," the other man said, tilting his head and breaking into a wide grin. "You really seemed to have trouble breathing."

"I'm fine now. Thanks," he said again. He wondered if this guy was a foreigner – his Japanese was perfect, but now that he looked, the man had blond hair, his expression was oddly open, and he had been swimming in a dirty cold river. Whatever. It didn't matter. Tatsumi closed his eyes for a moment and took in another deep breath. He had to thank this guy again, and then get home – his sweater was sticking uncomfortably to his skin and his hands were prickling with cold.

But when he opened them again, the handsome stranger was gone. Confused, Tatsumi sat up and looked around, but there was no trace that someone else had been on the riverbank, besides some disturbed reeds.

~!~

The thing was, it should have been just a weird occurrence. Something that Tatsumi could shake his head over later and then go on with no more consequence than avoiding old chain fences.

Instead, he avoided taking a bath that night and stayed up late doing homework. When he finally went to bed, he dreamed of water closing in over his head and limbs that wouldn't move, which left him to wake, terrified because he was tangled in his blankets.

The early awakening was _not_ appreciated, but now he was up. Not looking forward to another nightmare, he decided to go ahead and make breakfast, relax a little before the long school day.

He browsed the net while he ate, and out of habit, he went to the local news website. Local politics, some kind of event going on next week... and another video of the supposed mermaid. Tatsumi never clicked on them, but something about the thumbnail of this one made him pause. Was that blond hair?

He set his bowl down and watched the video. It was terrible quality, shaky cell-phone footage taken in dim lighting. There was no way that anyone could seriously claim that it showed a mermaid. But the video was good enough to see something bright and yellow disappearing under the surface of the water.

So their 'mermaid' was just a weird foreigner, then, one who liked to swim and couldn't feel the cold.

It was a disappointing explanation, and though it seemed reasonable, it bothered him all day. Or rather, the man who had rescued him intruded his thoughts. The feeling of drowning had been terrifying, so his brain preferred to focus on his rescuer, the hands on his wrists, the floating golden hair, the lips passing life-saving air to him.

"What are you blushing about?" one of his friends asked over lunch.

Tatsumi, who had been replaying the whole scene for the twentieth time, coughed and said, "It's nothing important." Nobody was dissuaded, of course, but it was the end of lunch and they didn't have much time to pester him.

Walking back after work, it was still bothering him. The fence on the bridge had been repaired already (this time replaced with a sturdier-looking bar), but he didn't risk leaning over it again. Instead, he crouched on the riverbank. He watched the water for several minutes, looking for any hint of _something_ (and trying not to feel too silly). A fashion magazine floated by, and he fished it out to toss in the recycle bin sitting right there, next to a vending machine.

When he turned back, he noticed that the sun had set a little further, casting more shadows across the river. But one of those shadows had a golden tone to it. Curious. Tatsumi wandered up the bank a bit, trying to get a better look – and that golden shadow followed him.

Without thinking he stepped out into the water, trying to get closer. Step, step – another meter or so and then he could touch it, see if the shadow was a mermaid or a foreigner or a piece of trash. Step–

A hand grabbed his leg. He yelped and wobbled, but this time he stayed upright.

His rescuer floated up out of the river. "Careful," he said, his face gentle. "It's like a shelf – if you go any further, you'll have to swim."

"T-thank you," Tatsumi said, trying not to stare. The man smiled at him again and let him go. A small splashing sound drew Tatsumi's gaze up and behind the man, though he only saw a quick flash of something blue and glittering.

Oh. A tail. He really was a mermaid.


End file.
